If you ask numerous people what their concept
of the term “abnormal behavior” is, chances are you will get many different
responses. However, in spite of this, the generally agreed upon definition of
abnormal behavior is “behavior that deviates from what is commonly accepted in
a group or society,” or something along those lines. The problem with this
definition is the fact that there is no one
defining characteristic that makes a behavior “normal” and readily accepted;
what may be acceptable in some circles of life are most certainly not in
others. So, for that reason, I conducted some naturalistic observation with my
family to see what happens when something that is fairly common in one walk of
life steps outside of that circle and is placed into a very different one.
My
first deviant behavior that I chose to engage in will take a little bit of
explanation. One of my hobbies is on the strange side of the behavior spectrum,
so I thought that it would be a perfect fit for this assignment. This hobby is
called cosplay. Cosplay is defined as “the practice of dressing up as a
character from a movie, book, or video game, especially one from the Japanese
genres of anime and manga,” which is all well and good, but it stretches beyond
that. Cosplay is a form of performance art that involves improvisational
acting, costuming, special make-up effects, and sometimes even writing and
directing if you want to perform as your character for an audience and/or put a
video of the performance up on the Internet. People can cosplay wherever they
would like, from parks and malls to (far more frequently) anime and comic book
conventions where they will more than likely meet other people with the same
bizarre hobby they have. However, outside of these conventions, cosplay is not
very well understood and it certainly is not very common at all. To outsiders,
we are freaks jumping around in strange costumes and sometimes talking in
strange accents and languages that they do not understand.
At
this point in my cosplay career, I have almost twelve costumes for various
characters from anime, manga, comics, and TV shows that I am passionate about,
so that is why I thought cosplay was a good fit for this assignment. I would be
able to work with things that I already had on hand, along with being able to
do something I absolutely adored outside of the generally accepted circle for
doing so. So, in this case, I decided to dress up in my most outlandish costume
to date and go out to dinner with my family as if all was normal. In case you
are wondering just
what this costume entails, here is a snapshot of myself in costume to give you
an idea:
As for
where and when exactly we opted to conduct this observation, my family and I
decided to go to Texas Roadhouse around 7:00 pm, directly in the middle of the
dinner rush so that the most people would notice the strange character in their
midst. If I had to estimate the number of people who saw me in costume, I would
say at least one hundred caught a glimpse, though only a few saw my actual
performance in character. Those people would include the eight hosts and
hostesses on duty at the time, as well as our server and the bartender across
from our table.
The
people who saw only the costume appeared very confused and a little weirded out
by the appearance of the strange fish-human hybrid that had suddenly appeared
in their midst and seemed to have no intention of going away, though the
children who saw it were absolutely thrilled. They kept coming up to me and
asking me questions about my home world (the character I was playing was an
alien), what it was like, how I got to Earth, and a bunch of other questions
along the same lines. I, of course, played along and told them all about my
“home world” Alternia, how it was a brutal and cruel place, and that I had come
to Earth through the invention of a game called SBURB that allowed me to leave
and find a better life among the humans here. They adored talking to me about
everything and continued to do so until one of the hostesses working came up and
told us that our table was ready. Overall, from that area of the experience, I
noticed that children are for more willing to accept abnormal things than
adults are because they have not already been conditioned into thinking one
thing is more normal than an alternative.
The
people who interacted with me that were adults
seemed amused and intrigued by the whole concept of the story that I was
weaving for them, along with the strange mannerisms I brought to the character
I was playing. Our server asked at the end of the meal why I was dressed the
way I was, and I ended up having to tell her that I was doing it for a
psychology project, but before I had to tell her, she played along and was a
very good sport about everything.
My
own reactions to playing this character outside of a convention setting were
fairly mixed; on the one hand, it was interesting to see how normal people
reacted to the whole idea of my character and my costume. On the contrary, it
was rather awkward to be stared at and silently judged by the people who did
not understand what was going on, or the people who did not actually interact
with me. It made me feel somewhat self-conscious that I was going against what
was perceived as “normal” by society, as I am an awkward person by nature and I
tend to want to fade into the background when I can. During this experiment, I
was very much on display and the center of attention, which is not a place
where I am used to being. It allowed me to get insanely far out of my comfort zone,
and I found that to be a little invigorating. Overall, it is an experience I
would definitely participate in again if I had the opportunity.
The
second “deviant behavior” my family and I chose to partake in was something
that has occurred naturally in our family more than once: spontaneous shadow
puppet theatre. Allow me to explain; someone in my family usually carries a
small pocket flashlight with them, whether it be on their key ring or in their
purse. Then, whenever inspiration strikes, that person can take out the pocket
flashlight, shine it on the nearest wall, and put on a spontaneous shadow
puppet show in the light provided by the small instrument. This has been going
on for years, and something tells me that this behavior is not going to stop
any time soon. When coming up with ideas for this assignment, my father
suggested we engage in some spontaneous shadow puppet theatre in the middle of
Olive Garden during a celebratory dinner for my mother. Naturally, I agreed
immediately, as this behavior may be normal for us, but it is certainly not for other people. We decided that
people would probably give us strange looks, that the whole thing would
probably amuse some people, and that all of that would be completely worth it.
When
we got to the restaurant early in the dinner rush, we were surrounded by
roughly forty people of varying ages, along with our server. We waited until we
were half way through eating our salads, and then sprang into action. My father
was the one who actually performed the spontaneous shadow puppet theatre act,
while I acted as the observer. The children at the table beside our own were
delighted, and it appeared that their parents were as well. In fact, everyone
in the vicinity seemed entertained by the story my father was weaving using
nothing more than light and shadow. Our server told us at the end of our meal
that our little stunt had actually made his night, and that he had been having
a pretty awful shift until we came along and cheered him up.
I
asked my father once we got home how he had felt as he performed the shadow
puppet act, and he told me that he had felt very happy. He had enjoyed making
the children beside us laugh, and that he had managed to brighten our server’s
night with a little ridiculousness, and he also said that that was what he had
hoped would come out of the performance. He also said that, even though we had
gotten a few strange looks in the beginning, he no longer cared what people
thought and just enjoyed doing what made him and those around him happy. As for
my reactions to the whole thing as an observer, it also made me happy to know
that someone in my family was making everyone around us so happy. Seeing people
laugh and smile because of what my father was doing provided me with a little
spark of joy that was actually rather surprising, being that I was just an
observer in the whole affair.
Abnormal
behavior is an interesting concept for many reasons, the first and foremost of
which is the different variations of what the term “abnormal behavior” means to
different people. What is accepted in some social circles can sometimes not be
accepted in different circles, and somehow I do not believe that everything is supposed to be accepted in every walk of
life. If everything was, we would not
have different social circles to begin with; we would not know where we fit as
human beings, and that would be a very confusing and disorienting experience
because by nature human beings have a carnal desire to belong. If it wasn’t for
varying walks of life, we would have no clue where to let our guards down and
simply be who we are, and that would be a very sad existence indeed.
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